CYPE

As mentioned before, my sample consisted of 24 professional Sri Lankan women. According to O‟Neil and Bilimoria‟s (2005) classification eight women were in early career (age 24-35), eight in mid-careers (age 36-45) and eight in late careers (age 46-60). Although I see classifying women into age based career stages as rather reductionist, I used this approach for my study because almost all existing women‟s career models are based on equal numbers of women from three age based career stages, and these scholars argue that women‟s preoccupations differ according to their career stage (see Maneiro and Sullivan, 2005; O‟Neil and Bilimoria, 2005). Twelve women in my sample worked for public sector organisations at the time of the interviews. Twelve worked for private organisations. I wanted to have equal numbers of respondents from private and public organisations because of the contrasting pay structures and organisational cultures between public and private organisations in Sri Lanka.

As noted in chapter 6 private organisations are considered to be high payers and possess western-influenced cultures where superiors are addressed by first names and work-life policies are widely available. Public organisations in contrast are known to be poor paymasters who possess traditional and bureaucratic organisational cultures. A few respondents had switched between public and private organisations during the course of their career and therefore this classification is simply their status at the time of the interview.

All respondents were qualified to graduate level or equivalent. Around half were Masters qualified or were reading for a postgraduate course at the time of the interview. Three women planned to enrol in postgraduate study. One woman had a PhD. With the exception of three respondents, all women identified themselves as Sinhalese Buddhists, the majority ethnic and religious group in Sri Lankan society. One respondent was a Tamil Hindu (the second largest minority ethnic and religious group in Sri Lanka), one respondent was a Catholic Burgher

(descendants of early European colonial administrators) and one respondent was a Catholic Colombo Chetti (descendants of early Indian travelling salesmen). Although I took great efforts to diversify the ethnic composition of my sample, my contacts were restricted to mainly the Sinhalese Buddhist community that I belong to.

Nineteen respondents were married and had children. Those who were not married (all in early career) were actively seeking marriage partners. One respondent was separated after a brief marriage. All except one respondent were from Colombo. As I stated before, all of the women experienced significant social and economic privilege: where they lived in their own houses in residential neighbourhoods or rented high profile condominiums in the centre of the city. Almost all ran at least two cars and employed chauffeurs and domestic maids. The spouses of the respondents were employed in high profile professional occupations or ran their own established business ventures. Respondents‟ children were studying in prestigious private schools in the country and/or in renowned universities in the UK, USA and Australia.

The table below highlights a brief career profile of each respondent of the study. The women were given pseudonyms for confidentiality purposes and the names of their organisations were disguised.

Career profiles of respondents Name Age Career

stage

Sector Occupation/

Designation

Education

Natasha 25 Early career Public sector Journalist BA (Sheffield) UK

Niranjala 24 Early career Public sector Personal Banker IBSL Sri Lanka

Gayathri 29 Early career Public sector Doctor (House officer) MBBS

(Moscow) Russia Sashi 32 Early career Public sector University Lecturer BA (Colombo) Sri Lanka, MSc (PIM) Sri Lanka Sherangi 26 Early career Private sector Assistant Brand

Manager

HND (Edexel) UK, CIM UK Shamila 32 Early career Private sector Psychologist BSc MSc

(Waikato) New Zealand

Roshini 28 Early career Private sector Engineer BEng (McGill) Canada

Kishani 31 Early career Private sector Legal Officer BA (Kelaniya) Sri Lanka

LLB (Colombo) Sri Lanka

Charka 36 Mid-career Public sector Doctor (Registrar) MBBS

(Colombo) Sri Lanka, MRCP 1 (Colombo) Sri Lanka

Irangi 37 Mid-career Public sector University Lecturer (Senior)

BA (Colombo) Sri Lanka, PhD (Monash) Australia

Vandana 38 Mid-career Public sector Bank Manager IBSL Sri Lanka, SLIM Sri Lanka in progress Radika 36 Mid-career Public sector Senior Engineer BEng (Kingston)

UK,

MEng (Imperial College) UK Shanili 36 Mid-career Private sector Vice President BSc

(Portsmouth) Kalpana 37 Mid-career Private sector Food & Beverage

Manager

BA (Colombo) Sri Lanka, HCIMA (UK) Nishanya 36 Mid-career Private sector Finance Manager ACMA UK,

MBA (Wales) UK in progress Swaneetha 61 Late career Public sector Senior Professor BSc (Peradeniya)

Sri Lanka, PhD (Lancaster) UK

BA (Peradeniya)

Rupika 54 Late career Public sector Director Bank Operations

Sri Lanka, MSc (LSE) UK

Kanthi 52 Late career Public sector Permanent Secretary:

Cabinet ministry

BA (Colombo) Sri Lanka, SLAS Sri Lanka

Dilhari 48 Late career Public sector Assistant Director Statistics

Devika 46 Late career Private sector Director Special Projects

FCMA UK

Anouka 49 Late career Private sector General practitioner/

Head of counselling

MBBS

(Colombo) Sri Lanka

Socio-demographic profiles of respondents

Shamila/EC Married

Vandana/MC Married 2 Assistant Father-in-law Sinhalese

children:

Swaneetha/

Madhavi/LC Married 1 son: 20 this chapter I will explain the two processes separately to fully examine key aspects of each.

As mentioned before, the principal method of data collection for this study was semi structured interviews. Each respondent was interviewed for 3-4 hours. All interviews took place at the homes of respondents‟ friends and family in the UK. Each interview commenced with a brief discussion about the nature and purpose of the research process, explaining issues of confidentiality and respondents signing the consent form. Participants were also invited to ask questions at any point during the interview process. Thereafter basic demographic information such as the respondent‟s date of birth, occupation, place of work, designation, parents and spouse‟s occupation, numbers and ages of children and town of residence was collected. In most cases I already knew participants‟ basic background information since I